Pink and Pinkier

There’s the barely pink blush of spring.

Then there’s the LookhowpinkIcanbe show off of spring.

~mwe

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And it was all Yellow

What’s better than yellow in the spring time?

~mwe

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Going Green

I took way too many pictures on my spring break outing to share in one post, so I’m going to divide them into themes.

Today, we go green.

~mwe

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To do: Choose Joy

I’m a list maker.

I put even minor things on my to do lists.

First, because it relieves the stress of trying to remember every little thing I need to do.

But my favorite part of making lists is being able to cross things off.  When I’m able to cross even one thing off my list, I feel like I’ve done something with my day.

A couple of weeks ago I made of list of things I needed to get done as I wrapped up winter quarter.  I also included the title for a blog post I was thinking about writing: Choose Joy.

The next few days, every time I checked things off my list I saw it staring back at me:

Choose Joy

It wasn’t long before I decided I’m keeping it on my list.

Because you know what?  I forget to do it ALL the time.

How can that be?  I mean, it’s JOY.  It feels AMAZING.  It makes my heart burn – in a good way.

But I often find myself choosing everything else.

Stress.

Boredom.

Anxiety.

Frustration.

Discontent.

Why do I do that?  Why do I so easily forget the things that bring me joy and fall into the things that keep me down?

Does this happen to anyone else?

(Let me say, I believe joy is different from happiness.  Joy can exist in the face of adversity and even sadness.  It makes the worst of situations bearable.  It’s a sense of peace.  A sense of contentment.  A deep, abiding love for life and all that comes with it.  But when it’s not there, everything is off balance, irritating, upsetting. In short – wrong.) 

So true to form, I spent most of my spring break doing random things.  I appreciated the unusually warm, early spring weather, but didn’t really get out to enjoy it.  So on the last day I had to myself, I decided (with a little coaxing from my husband) to go to one of my favorite places to take some pictures of spring in all it’s glory.

Because that brings me JOY.

Here’s a little preview.  I’ll share more in the coming days …

~mwe

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Finding the Beautiful

How is August almost over??  Where did the summer go??  No, I mean really – where did the summer go???

Camps, swimming, sleeping in, lunch dates, fairs … it all went by way too fast.  My kids are starting their second week of school and it already seems like a distant memory as we get back to schedules (which isn’t entirely a bad thing.)

Even our family vacation, which was just 3 weeks ago, seems so far away.  So in an effort to keep it fresh in my mind  I decided to share one of my favorite parts with you.  We visited Jekyll Island, along the coast of Georgia.  I had been there once with my parents the summer after I finished 5th grade, so I was curious to see if it was what I remembered.  (For the record, it wasn’t.  Or at least my memory of it wasn’t.  Well, part of it was – the beach.  But I didn’t remember anything else on the island except the hotel we stayed in.)

This was the first time my kids have been to the ocean since they were toddlers, so they were excited to put their feet in.

We spent time on the beach…

the Georgia Sea Turtle Center…

watching dolphins…

As the boat captain said, trying to take pictures of dolphins is like trying to photograph lightening.

and enjoying life at a slower pace.

Sunrise

But one of the most amazing places we saw was called Driftwood Beach.  This beach, on the northern tip of the island, is a landing spot for all kinds of trees.  Walking through the brush onto the beach literally took my breath away.

At first, all I could see was the trees.  Enormous trees.  Scraggly trees.  Dead trees.

But the longer I stayed, the longer I noticed there was more.  The beach was teeming with life in and around the trees.

And I noticed something else.

Beauty.

Such amazing beauty.

It’s a lesson I’ve learned many times in my life, but one I always seem to need reminded of … beauty is found beyond the obvious.

It’s in the big, monstrous.

It’s in the tiny, microscopic.

It’s in the dead.

It’s in the empty.

It’s in the light.

It’s in the dark.

It may take 15 hours in a mini-van to find it.

But it’s also there when I open my eyes every morning.

~mwe

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Rainy Afternoon

The day started with bright blue skies, but by the afternoon it was pouring rain.  I headed to the back porch to see what I could find.

 

 

~mwe

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Under the Lilac Bush

Maybe it’s because I’ve spent too much time reading children’s story books, or maybe it’s because I sometimes long for the days of playing make-believe when I was a little girl, but when I found these little mushrooms in my backyard I let out a little gasp.  They immediately made me imagine a little village living right under my lilac bush.  I’ll leave imagining the inhabitants up to you ….

 

~mwe

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Lily Love

Last spring I bought a bag of random bulbs from my daughter’s flower sale at school.  I chose it not for the flowers that were in it, but because it was one of the least expensive things available.  (I know, I know, but after all the fundraisers my kids participate in, they’re lucky I bought anything.)

So the bulbs came, I put them in the ground, and forgot about them.  This spring, I noticed their little green heads starting to sprout.  Unfortunately, so did the bunny who lives in our backyard.  He munched most of them down to the nub.  But for some reason he never found the ones in the other corner of the yard.  This week, I was greeted with this glorious lily.  As you can see from the number of pictures I’m sharing with you (which is less than the number of pictures I took), I was taken with the beauty of its detail.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

~mwe

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A Walk In The Woods

Well now that that’s been decided, here are some pictures from my walk in the woods this week.  I’ve been going to this park my entire life – maybe that’s why given the choice, I’d choose a day in the woods over a day at the beach.

(And in case you missed the pictures from my 30-minute Interlude, you can see them here.)

I'm naming this squirrel Julius Ceasar because he seemed to enjoy lounging as he ate

Then he seemed as though he had something to say to me

This little guy posed for a picture

And this blue jay had much to say, none of which I can repeat

Leaves of three, Let them be

This tree had these formations every few feet along its trunk - Anyone know what would cause it?

Lovely wildflowers

And more ... so delicate

But I love the woods most for the trees and light and sounds.

~mwe

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